Unequal Access to Educational Opportunity among Pennsylvania's High School Students

Pennsylvania's students consistently score above the national average on overall student achievement. However, the state's achievement gaps between White students and Black and Hispanic students are consistently among the worst in the country, even when controlling for gaps in family income, poverty, unemployment, and parental educational attainment. In this brief, the authors highlight how Pennsylvania compares to other states in providing equitable access to educational opportunity. Following a more detailed discussion of the educational opportunity indicators, the authors first examine Pennsylvania's rankings on overall access and then how Pennsylvania compares to other states on gaps in access to educational opportunity between White and Black students, between White and Hispanic students, and between students eligible for free/reduced price lunch and students who are not eligible. Finally, the authors discuss how racial gaps in access to educational opportunity persist or change when examining just the subsets of high schools with high, medium, or low concentrations of student poverty.